I have a Roamio Pro and no Mini yet. I know the Mini has DTA now to release the tuner when not in use.

So if on the Mini, I turn on my TV and tell it to tune to live tv and a particular channel, then I shut my TV off, but do NOT put the Mini in Standby (since I don't believe there is an off?), what happens?

1) Will the Roamio tuner continue to be on live tv and tuned to the channel I previously set (so when I power the TV back on live TV will be playing)?

2) Will it somehow realize I am no longer watching TV and it releases the tuner (bringing me back to the start / Tivo Central page)?

That seems much longer than it should be. I could see the timeout value being a few minutes, but 90? Anyone know why it is so long?

You have to press a remote button at least once in the timeout period to indicate you are still using the Mini. If the timeout period was too short like 5-10 minutes you don't want to be forced to have to press a remote button that often or be prompted if you are still watching all the time. Some people already complain 90 minutes is too short... Ideally it should be configurable but TiVo doesn't seem interested in making it so.

You have to press a remote button at least once in the timeout period to indicate you are still using the Mini. If the timeout period was too short like 5-10 minutes you don't want to be forced to have to press a remote button that often or be prompted if you are still watching all the time. Some people already complain 90 minutes is too short... Ideally it should be configurable but TiVo doesn't seem interested in making it so.

It seems that pressing Power Off (to turn the display off) should tell the Mini to release the tuner immediately.

It seems that pressing Power Off (to turn the display off) should tell the Mini to release the tuner immediately.

But there isn't a Power Off button, there's only a Power toggle, and TiVo has always assumed that it doesn't know whether the TV is on or off by use of that toggle button. I think that's a wise choice of their's, given the number of times my AV receiver and TV get "out-of-sync" because one of them didn't receive the Power signal. Getting "out-of-sync" with tuner release would be very annoying!

Just pressing the TiVo button will release the tuner. Yes, it's an extra thing to remember, but it will only rarely be important.

I see, return the Mini to Tivo Central and it releases the tuner on the Roamio. Just tested it and you're right. Thanks for the tip!

Yes, the tuner is allocated for the Mini if and only if the Mini is sending a live-tv signal to the TV (though the TV might be off, as you've found). So any action that takes you away from live-tv on the Mini will free up the tuner.

But there isn't a Power Off button, there's only a Power toggle, and TiVo has always assumed that it doesn't know whether the TV is on or off by use of that toggle button. I think that's a wise choice of their's, given the number of times my AV receiver and TV get "out-of-sync" because one of them didn't receive the Power signal. Getting "out-of-sync" with tuner release would be very annoying!

Using the HDMI protocol, the Mini could easily tell when the tv is powered off. This would not work for every tv/receiver because some stay on all the time but it wouldn't affect anything if it still used the idle timer as a backup. I think it would be a better user experience for most people if the Mini did this.